Hokori
by timelucked
Summary: "Tell me this," his words seemed caught, hesitant, but never unsure. "…do you regret," he took a pause to choose his word carefully. "Anything?"


"If you don't get down from there," Inuyasha growled in scolding, swatting and hopping up the line of a tree at a young child who rested peacefully on a branch. His brow irked, fist raising slowly and trembling all the while in his unmasked and infamous fury. "So help me, I will pummel you into the ground I stand – _Kagome!_" he shouted, never taking his narrowed gaze from their trained level at the sakura tree's mid-bark, but there was no need for the woman he called to already approached.

She stood, smiling as she rested heavily against the door frame of their hut. The two lived on the outskirts of Priestess Kaede's village, in a circled pasture a little away from the main plaza-marketplace. It was quiet and peaceful; though more importantly away from the other villagers who found her husbands banter and loud-mouthedness an awful nuisance. She shook her head at the memory of him, a red-clad monstrous fury wreaking havoc on a villager for having politely asked him to hush his incessant yells. She had made him sit as soon as his back bristled and his claws came out. Peeling away from the wood, miko robes scratching and billowing around her with the sudden breeze her motions stirred.

Inuyasha's cheek twitched, the little boy playfully sticking his tongue out at him. His eyes widened as he choked softly, feeling the warm and gentle touch of a hand on his upper arm. He followed the hand, up the voluminous white sleeve, tawny eyes trailing around the curve of shoulder to graze past the flowing tresses of ebony hair, and finally look at the creamy face of his wife. He stared at her intensely but devoid of all noticeable emotion – a commonplace thing for him.

"Inuyasha, you can not, nor will not, pummel our son into the ground where you stand. Lest you forget," she toyed with the necklace still around his neck, picking it up from its concealed home under his suikan and fingering the beads; she rubbed her thumb over the purplish and crystalline orbs, sliding her forefinger and thumb over the smooth fangs that stunted the pearled accessory. "This."

Her smile didn't seem to reach her eyes, but the hanyou was more preoccupied with the acorn that hit his head, growling deep in his throat to match his snarl. He swiveled on his naked heel, foot buried in the soft ground after the weather yielded bountiful rain the fortnight back, shaking his fist up at the child.

"Son or no, he will be punished," Inuyasha turned his frustration to his son, shouting up at him. "AND HOW DID YOU GET AN ACORN – YOU'RE IN A _CHERRY BLOSSOM TREE!_"

The little boy's ears pricked, twin white peaks atop his silver-highlighted hair – the child looked the near spitting image of his father. Inuyasha had commented how odd it was that his son should look as a hanyou.

"_Wouldn't he be more human?" he had intoned. "I mean, s'far as I know, you're all human, right? And me, I'm half. So…wouldn't that make him only one quarter youkai?"_

_She blanched, yanking her child out of his hands and replaced him back in the crook of her sheltered arms, cuddling the small baby. Inuyasha sniggered then._

"_Heh heh heh, 'chisaiyou' – haha 'little demon' Maybe that's what we should call 'im."_

_She snuggled the child, her child, brushing its black bangs aside with her weary lips. "Why not name him after your father?"_

_Inuyasha scowled cynically. He answered in his usual sardonic drawl. "That's a bit cliché, doncha think?"_

"_You think?" she reiterated blandly, dazed still by her earlier labor. _

_He grinned lopsidedly in response, a single fang glimmering against the backdrop of the curtained hut. He knelt by the waist, flicking aside her sweat-dampened hair and nuzzled his sharp nose against her forehead affectionately. "Yeah – a bit."_

"_Well then," she smiled tiredly up at him, then with soft tenderness back at the bundle in her arms. "I guess we'll just have to name him –" _

Her thoughts were disrupted by the numerous grunts and responding snickers of her family, the two most rambunctious boys she had ever seen and dealt with. A flash of crimson kept blurring up and down in perfect time to the groans and muffled curses. The little boy snickered in gleefully devious delight, shifting his squatted position on the branch to keep away from Inuyasha's hands.

"A-ha!" Inuyasha gripped the high-up branch and grinned in feral accomplishment.

The child screeched, feeling the tug at his hakama as the man's claws sank into the cloth of his small robes. "Mommy!" he cried out for help, screaming as Inuyasha jerkily pulled himself up, throwing his weight with enough momentum to seat himself on the branch.

His lips pulled back in a triumphant sneer – childishly glorifying in his besting of a child, even his own. The little boy's golden eyes liquefied in his fright. The miko sighed, opening her respectfully folded arms. These acts were shenanigans done on a weekly basis, and she had grown more than accustomed to them. Gulping back his fear, the toddler braved and steeled his might, then threw himself off the outcropping. Inuyasha's face dropped – not from fatherly concern, but from the loss of prey. The child shut his eyes and breathed out in relief as he fell into his mother's warm body, her arms tightened securely around his small frame. The white of her pristine robes melded with her son's slightly dirtier kosode, her sleeves enveloping him. Blinking, he gazed up at Kagome – smiling brilliantly after a moment, eyes creased in joy, hers similarly.

"'ey, no fair!" Inuyasha pouted, arms crossed haughtily over his chest.

Dropping her son to the ground, he quickly took hold of her hand – losing itself in the sleeve of her attire as it shrouded all the way up to his mid-arm – and grinned cheekily up at the man in the tree.

"Haw haw, Daddy – may'e next time!"

"Why you-!" but his words were cut off with a simple command.

Behind the sleeve of her arm, she masked a single word and suddenly Inuyasha found the floor rising to meet him. Hard. _Very_ hard. He cried out in pain, a gurgled mess of incoherent phrases. The two simply trotted off.

"Come on, the stew is done." She said down to her son, taking him back inside the hut.

She released his miniscule hand and swept aside the planked curtain that served for a door. He toddled in, one foot after the other in giant pick-up strides, making his way into the thatched hut, and hopping up the stone raising where presided the entire layout of the space. He sat by the simmering hearth, watching as the black pot stewed and boiled atop the charred cinders of the remaining wood. A brittle piece of it cracked off into a gray, sooty pile of dust. Reaching carefully, he palmed a handful and ran a finger through the soft mass. It was silken to the touch and broke apart so easily. Kagome knelt down, staring into her son's eyes as they ascended to meet hers. With a smile she blew and gray splattered her sons pale face. A pearly white smile cracked beneath the soot as the little boy rocked back in his mad giggling.

He rolled around on the floor, sweeping the dirt, mud, and dust as he went. She shook her head at the boy who brought her so much happiness, setting about her business as continued to roll around now simply for the joy in it. He flipped and somersaulted across the platform lazily, tossing his body this way and that flippantly. The child sat straight up, folding his legs under him politely as his bowl was set before him. Bowing his head in demure thanks, he picked the heated clay and let it warm his palms before slurping down the contents greedily. Kagome listened with a smile upon her face, seated just across the firepit from her son. Smacking his lips once finished, he traced his mouth with his tongue to clean it of any delicious remnants. Satisfied, he grinned with his tongue poking out between his teeth cutely, eyes scrunched in placated elation.

"Aren't you gawna eat, mommy?" he asked, noticing the empty space where a bowl should be set before her bent knees. The accent of youth made the words slightly foreign to her ears, but in the two and half years he had begun speaking, it was also a familiar thing. She blinked in quick succession at the marveling fact that her son was soon turning four.

"No, sweetie, I'm alright," she patted her stomach in assurance and the child took it as such. "Would you like to go play now?" she asked knowingly, gauging from his wayward and distant gaze that never settled on a particular thing for too long that he was getting restless and bored.

He perked up, ears at attention and twitching inwardly on themselves, happy at the prospect of what she offered. He readily cried out his affirmative and she picked herself up to walk out to their favorite 'play-spot'

"Where do ya think you two are goin'?" Kagome turned her head and saw Inuyasha ducking under his arm, the very one that held the curtain up. He quirked a brow.

She sniffed, but it was her son to formally answer. "Out to play, Dad. D'you want to come?" he tried enunciating his words.

"No, honey," Kagome twined her fingers with her son's, moving to the door her husband blocked with his fully grown bulk.

Her subtle gaze roved over him and still loved what she saw; lean body still visible in his passed-down clothing, the handsome set of his jaw, his defined and angular face scrutinizing her every move with as equal passing judgment as she gave him, his taller height and more muscled frame. At the approximated look of a human man of twenty five, she reveled in the way he looked and had aged – so very well. On the nights when he was in a fond and more romantic mood, she would play her fingers along his bare torso, running them up and down along the length of his raised pectorals and ridged abdominals; sometimes her skilled fingers would dip lower, beneath the smothering of the blankets which would only lead to an exhausted morning after of hushed passions.

"Daddy has to eat now." She rolled to the balls of her feet and kissed his cheek.

He simply feh'd in retaliation, but fell victim to subsequently turning his head and kissing his wife fully. She smirked in satisfaction and plodded off, son in tow.

She threw back a, "It's in the pot!" and stalked off.

-x-

Sitting on the cushion of soft, grassy mound, Kagome watched as her child, with his hakama rolled up to the knee, ran and splashed through the creak that flowed to the west of the village a few minutes walk from her home. He kicked at the water, skidded across the surface, even hopped from stone to stone. She worried when he did so, fearing he'd slip on the face of a mossy rock and hit his fragile head. But, he was a hanyou and much more…durable, than a 'pure' human child. Still, she blamed her maternal instinct for setting her nerves on end, fraying them horribly. She waved in a reciprocating gesture as he called out for her to watch, even if she had been doing so for the past ten minutes. He loved the water, he loved to swim in the river, to float on his back, but his especial favorite was when Inuyasha would get in with him and toss the boy high up and catch him just before he splatted against the surface, dropping him lightly down into the water. A smile touched her lips as she heard approaching footsteps make their way softly over to her. They stopped a little behind her.

"Do you plan on jumping in with him, or do you just intend on staring at my back?" she asked coyly, licking her lips as her bangs shadowed her eyes.

After a moments silence, she almost twisted around to see her suddenly stoic husband, but she settled back as she heard the scuttle of footsteps slowly make their way to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the robes and –

-her breath hitched. Instead of the brilliant red of Inuyasha's pant leg, she saw the white hakama of another. Gasping, her eyes shot up to see the long flowing hair, narrowed eyes, pointed chin, and magnificent armor of someone else entirely. It was only until he tilted his head a fraction of an inch in her direction did her uncomprehending mind register who it was. She stammered his name aloud, gulping past the sudden lump in her throat that threatened to choke the breath from her.

In response, he merely turned his head back to stare out across the landscape, taking in the sight of the enclosure, a circled pasture of forest trees and lush grasses with a river flowing through it. She unknowingly followed his gaze and stiffened, back rigid. What Sesshomaru truly stared at, was her son. Her hands shook, her mouth went dry, and her head buzzed and an incredible force pounded at her temple. Her son stopped knee-deep in the water, hands dropping down as water spilled from his uncupped appendages. He stared at her curiously, eyes studying the newcomer in silent questioning.

The little boy jumped from the water's suction grasp and ran up the hill with his arms straight back. He stopped just before the man; eyes following each design embroidered on the fine cloth, up the line of swords, past the armor and pauldron, and stared steadily into the cold eyes of this man. Kagome's heart stopped. He blinked up at the eyes so remarkably like his, a genetic trait that no one other than Inuyasha possessed. The boy was mesmerized. Sesshomaru's eyes were trained evenly at the boys'. The child averted his stare to his mother, then ran back off into the water – continuing his parade through the cool liquid.

Relinquishing the breath she had not known was bated; she closed her eyes in relief and just breathed, attempting to stabilize her breath. Sesshomaru's amber eyes cut to her, only able to view the top of her head as she spoke up.

"He's four now."

The youkai was silent.

"He's rambunctious like a kitsune, but also very demure and polite. He has the respect of a nobleborn boy," she continued, even if he would say nothing. "He has charisma, and the stamina of a full demon. Maybe that's because he's still a child, but he is also very strong."

A frog croaked and wild splashed chased after the sound.

"I guess that would be expected, he is from a very good line of demon. I heard Inuyasha's – _your_ – father was a very great man."

The man hmm'd deep in his throat, an almost passive growl.

"I wanted to name him after him, you know,"

The man seemed to scoff, but it was too low for her to catch and she wasn't even sure that was it.

"But I named him something else. It embodies both a part of your father's name and title, and what I hope my son will grow to become."

He waited patiently. Or perhaps he was just ignoring the human motherly babble.

"Inu no Hokori."

It seemed that finally gained a rise out of the brooding demon, actually answering her with more than a monosyllabic grunt or the coldness of silence. "The 'proud dog'?" he stated quietly, a hushed respect close to reverence coating his words thickly.

She nodded, fingers digging into her knees, drawing them up to her chest in insecurity. She bit down on her lip as she heard the sigh of cloth, signaling his swift departure. She was about to bury her head into her legs when something stopped her. It was a question that froze her to her core, stilled her erratic breathing.

"Tell me this," he stood a distance away and she needn't turn around to know that his back still remained to her. The wild and playful screams of her son almost muted his words, but they rang out clearer than a bell. His words seemed caught, hesitant, but never unsure. "…do you regret," he took a pause to choose his word carefully. "Anything?"

Something continuously pricked the backs of her eyes, but she ignored it and answered him, despite the sudden thickness in her voice. "My son is the greatest gift to me, the most precious being in this land. I could never have asked for a better miracle to be presented to me. He is the sun and moon to me, and I love him more than my own life," she swallowed and pushed on. "So when you ask, do I regret anything – no, Sesshomaru, I do not. Not for a single minute of any day. No matter what had happened in the past between…no matter what has happened, I will never regret it."

She heard the rustle of his hair, reaching well past his mid-back now, as he turned to stare at her. She knew it was in his profile – and she knew she could never look at him again. So she remained seated and staring, down by the bank, but something in the silence he left behind – not only whisked her to a dark night shared with another in the moonlit hours by a fireside that crackled warmly and danced across the pallid features that illuminated a blue moon that was never meant for the sky – told her that he would never regret their decision either.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So recently, due to some fan**_**tastic**_** fanart I found searching through deviantART, I have really come to like SessKag. Which is weird because…so, I don't actually like them as a couple, there's really VERY LITTLE to NO canonical proof of it – but … I guess I like the conept?**

**Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge InuKagger, but I mean…honestly, let's face it – who wouldn't wanna be paired up with Sesshomaru? **

**Which is funny because only recently in the Inuyasha-otaku timeline did I actually start liking him. Haha, but then I became obsessed – thank you, amazing fanart, once again!**

**So for those who don't get this story, Kagome and Inuyasha are living happily bla blah blah (sorry I didn't really narrate that point too well, but that wasn't the focus of this story at all) they have a son and, though he doesn't show it, Inuyasha does love him very much. He does NOT in fact know that it isn't **_**his**_** son. He thinks the kid is his and that whole "Hanyou/Quarter demon" thing he just sorta blows off and whatever. **

**I love him to death, he's hilarious and awesome, but I don'ttttt really see Inuyasha as the fatherly type. Which is why I showed him bein' all himself and "RAGHR I WILL KILL YOU AND BEAT YOUR FACE IN! AAARGH!" **

**If you guys had questions about the whole "Chisaiyou" let me explain. It is not proper Japanese at all. Proper Japanese for little demon would be something more like "Chiisai (**the word meaning 'little' or 'small' with the 'I' to make it a proper adjective**) Akuma/Oni (**words meaning demon**)"**

**But looking at the dynamic of the demon classification in the Inuyasha/Takahashi world, both words for 'demon' have 'you' in them. So what I did was essentially mash up the word for small – IMPROPERLY, YES I KNOW. I HAVE been studying the language for quite some time now – and the 'you' in it. I guess though, in that regard, I probably should have made it youchisai…but that looks and sounds weird. **

**Oh, and Hokori is the word for proud and pride in Japanese. Ah! And Inu no Taishou – it's both his title and 'name' so, yeah. I think in that, I wanted to bring the fact that Kagome wants her son to achieve great things – so she gave him the name of his grandfather – the great lord of the western lands. Who knows, Inu no Hokori may live up to it. After all, he's got pure demon blood (though granted, it IS diluted with human genetics) flowing through his veins.**

**Oh! Yes, and that whole scene where INH looks at Sesshomaru and appraises him and stuff, he feels a sort of calling to him. He was probably like "Hmmm…this guy looks like Daddy…and he's got my eyes! And Daddy's too! Wow…he's tall…and big…and…and…and scary. But…there's somethin'…do I know him? …Mommy's lookin' weird, guess he's a stwangerrr…meh whatever – I got things to do, places to play – see ya!"**

**Ah, and in case I get a flame saying "Sesshomaru would never go with Kagome blah blah blah – he's prejudiced" may I remind you that he is with Rin? Canon proof that Rin is softening Sesshomaru's heart (Now there's a pairing I love~ Er…older Rin, not 'baby' Rin…) and by the time their whole tryst went down, so what….like… let's see… Kagome goes there at 18…25 minus 18 is… (why am I writing this part out?) 7…subtract 4/5… two. So that means, according to my story – Kagome and Sesshomaru consummated their inappropriate lust when she was twenty! Plenty of time for him to see the light in humanity. Or just give in to bein' a horny guy who has the sex appeal of … something sexy. Haha, I'm eloquent.**

**Well, that's all folks. I think? Correct me if I'm wrong! Or just leave your input – I LOVE hearing what you all have to say. Well…as long as it's relevant. But then you can PM if ya just wanna chat so hey, wheee. Wow, it's 2AM…gotta hit the hay now. **


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